Lisa Thomas
Jazz and Modern Faculty 
Outreach Coordinator
Thomas teaches Horton-based Modern, Jazz, Improvisation, Body Conditioning, and Yoga. She has been seen scaling the walls in downtown Roanoke as part of an Aerial Display in Dance. In 2002 she innovated original solo works with the multi-media production OmniCircus led by Frank Garvey in San Francisco, California. Thomas was a principal dancer with the Cleo Parker Robinson Dance Ensemble of Denver, Colorado for five years where she had the honor of working with such legends as Katherine Dunham, Talley Beatty, Milton Myers, David Rousseve, Donald Byrd, Ron K. Brown, Diane McIntyre, and Donald McKayle. Thomas enjoys sharing her love of dance with other cultures. She has studied the dance forms of India, Chile, Africa, and the USA. Thomas performed her Kathakali Arangetam in Kerala, India in 2000. Before returning to her home state of Virginia, she taught dance to public school children in New York City for Jacques d'Amboise's National Dance Institute. She has been a Master Teacher at Virginia Governor's School for the Arts, Radford University, Old Dominion University, Sweet Briar College, and the Roanoke Ballet Theatre, as well as the Regional High School Dance Festival in Baltimore, Maryland. She holds a BA in Dance from the University of Colorado, Boulder.